Sociology: A New Frontier at the Mount

There are many questions regarding what the minors at the Mount are and what they all entail. Thankfully, I am here to inform you about a new minor here at the Mount. This minor fits with all majors and prepares everyone who wishes to be educated in diversity, humanity, race, gender, and much more. This minor is the highest enrolled minor currently at the college. There may be many questions regarding what this new minor is, what it includes, and what benefits are available in regards of this minor. I have been a member of this minor program for two years and would like to share some information about it as well as my personal experiences from my involvement in it. Enjoy!

What is this minor you ask? Sociology. Many may ask what sociology is, but it is hard to label this as just one thing. Sociology is mainly the study of how people behave in groups. These groups can be derived from religion, race, sex, etc. They address issues of racism, sexism, and how people interact with other institutions. Within the sociology classes, one is presented with many readings and videos that will add to the knowledge of the person’s mind.

There are many aspects of sociology that can be applied to every major. The information learned through these classes benefit all future careers offered at the Mount. When working with clients, patients, and people, it is important to understand their views and how they believe society works. Thus, learning sociology can assist all people of every major in this understanding. In every job, one will have to work with people, many of whom may be of a different culture; in sociology, people address much of this diversity by examining the roles race, sex, and gender play in social relations. Some topics addressed are oppression of feminism, masculinity, race, and so much more. The minor can easily be applied to the Mercy values of the college as mercy, service, justice and hospitality are all addressed every day in class. There are also many educational benefits to this major like service projects, research projects, and classes offered off campus.

Scheduling as a new or continuing student can be very stressful. Not having enough credits, not having any classes that apply to your major, or having to race every other student on campus for a seat in the class and hoping you aren’t wait-listed can be very difficult. As busy college students, we often don’t feel we have time to add a minor to our degrees, but with sociology that is not true. Since sociology can be applied to every major, there is a long list of classes that qualify for the minor. For example, there are psychology, criminology, business, nursing classes that count as credits towards the minor. There are only six classes that are needed to gain the sociology minor. The three mandatory classes are Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, and Sociological Theory. There have been new classes developed like Men and Women in American Society, which studies femininity, masculinity, and race. Students in the class look at social phenomenons like rap music, Disney, schools and other institutions. Other classes that have been added to the curriculum are the Sociology of Sport and Social Deviance.

There are many opportunities for students who add these classes to their curriculum. In the spring of 2018, Dr. Mansley and her criminal justice/sociology classes studied the effects of bullying and what the consequences of bullying are. The group, called MOWER (Mountie Providing Opportunities Within Educational Realms), visited local high schools to address the bullying. In previous years, the sociology and criminology professors choose ten students to take a class inside a local prison. I was luckily one of the students who were chosen to take this class. We took a class inside FCI Loretto camp with 10 inmates. Each year there are different inmates, so very rarely do you ever see the same inmate twice. This is a great class and I highly encourage every student I meet to apply for this course. The subject also changes every year, so the inmates learn different things. The year during which I was in the class, we focused on media and how commercials influence the outside world and families. After studying the specific topic for the semester, we hold a graduation for the inmates. They get credit for this class. Many people have a stigma of what inmates are like: They are large, burly men who have tattoos all over their body, etc. This is not true for the inmates in the class. This media class was the thing I and most of my classmates all looked forward to; that class was a time to laugh and I know the inmates liked us being there as well. We had so much fun in that class and I highly encourage everyone to apply for this class.

Another opportunity that the sociology minor offers students is faculty-student research projects. This year, six students were involved in a research project that discussed the conflict between stay-at-home mothers and working mothers in society. In this project, we read books about motherhood to get an understanding of what the “mommy war” was about, what intense mothering entails, and much more. We then took data from eight stay-at-home mom blogs and eight working mom blogs and collected data from them. This project was then presented at the Sociological Conference in Boston, MA on Saturday March 9th, 2019. We have also been offered to present this at a sociology class at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown and at a mother’s group for a church located in Pittsburgh.

This minor not only has a broad and diverse selection of classes but also a broad selection of students. There are criminology majors, political science majors, occupational therapy students, psychology majors, etc within the program. This minor is made for everyone and can be used for any job. In my personal experience, I started in the Introduction to Sociology class in my sophomore year of college, learning the basics about theories and theorists as well as critically thinking about Disney and what gender stereotypes we see within these movies. A whole spectrum of interesting articles and movies are watched in this class. That is when I fell in love with sociology. I was already a psychology minor, so I figured why not get people the whole way around. I took every sociology class the Mount had to offer. I talked to Dr. Mansley about the classes that I could take and she pushed me to take the sociology classes and to understand it. During my junior year, the college finally announced that we could add a sociology minor and I was excited. Immediately, I emailed Dr. Mansley and asked how I was to be added into this minor and what classes I would have to take to qualify. That semester, I took Multiculturalism in Criminal Justice and Diversity in the Deaf Community. Within the class, I read a fantastic book called The Other Wes Moore, which soon turned into my favorite book (highly recommend). Diversity in the Deaf Community was taught by Frank Sankey, who is the ASL professor at the college. This class taught me so much about the Deaf community that regular sociology classes could not teach me. It added to my knowledge and inspired me to take an ASL class in the fall semester of my senor year. All these classes that I have taken regarding sociology have made me a better student and a better person. As a future occupational therapist, it is important to know your clients and understand them. By applying the things I have learned in sociology, I can better my therapy approaches and learn how to best take care of my clients.

The purpose of this article was to not push you to add sociology to your curriculum but to inform you of the opportunities the sociology minor can provide. Sociology contributes to all majors the Mount offers and would provide a great opportunity for everyone who declares it. Graduate schools and future employers look for people who can understand diversity and have a strong background in humanity, race,and gender — all topics that the sociology minor helps students study.

For more information email Dr. Elizabeth Mansley at emansley@mtaloy.edu.